


CSI: Balamb

by Kitsune_Moonstar



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 16:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/688918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitsune_Moonstar/pseuds/Kitsune_Moonstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quistis Trepe has been accused of being a ghoul before. After all, she does hang around the dead at night. Of course, that's only because she's in charge of the graveyard shift at Balamb Crime Lab.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tour the Lab

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own FF8 or its characters.

**Tour the Lab**

Dr. Quistis Trepe adjusted her lab coat and straightened her glasses. She wasn't nervous exactly, but she always needed something to do with herself before these tours started. Tonight she was playing guide for an introduction to forensic science class from Balamb University. She was there to give them a tour of the Balamb Crime Lab and a feel for what real criminologists did everyday. The duty had fallen to her since she was the supervisor for the graveyard shift as well as one of the coroners. Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Quistis took a deep breath. They should be here any minute.

As the class filled the lobby, Quistis smiled and mentally reviewed her plans. It should be an interesting evening for everyone. Graveyard shift had just started, and so far it was a slow night. It was doubtful that would last, but she was going to take advantage of it as long as it did.

"Good evening. I'm Dr. Trepe. I'm one of the coroner's for the crime lab, and I run the graveyard shift." Quistis offered the group a smile. "There are a few things that I need to go over before we get started."

When she was sure she had everyone's attention, she continued, "This is a working lab. That mean we will be processing evidence during your visit. Please do not touch anything unless you are invited to. You could contaminate evidence, and furthermore, we use a number of dangerous chemicals here, and you really don't want to spend your evening in the emergency room. Please feel free to ask any questions you have."

With a smile, Quistis held open the door that led into the actual labs. "Let's get started."

Their first stop was the audio/visual lab. Once all the students had been herded into the room, Quistis began.

"Balamb Crime Lab is one of the three best labs in the country. This has allowed us to afford a number of things that most crime labs can't such as full audio/visual lab. This is Selphie Tilmitt, our A/V specialist."

The perky brunette beamed at the group. "Welcome to my lair. Feel free to call me Selphie. Most of my work is done here. While I am trained to do other things, like collect evidence, I don't do much fieldwork. There's enough of a demand for my services here that it would be silly for me to waste my time with something that someone else can do. So, you're probably now wondering what exactly it is that I do."

Selphie quickly typed something on her computer and a number of screens in the room flared to life. The students were suitably impressed. Selphie smiled and continued.

"Most of my work involves video images from crime scenes, mostly captured by security cameras. I can enlarge people or things in a video, capture stills from the video, translate video formats, and highlight images of interest in a video. I also have a background in forensic photography. Our lab here uses both digital and 35 millimeter film. I'm responsible for the storage of photographs as well as making duplicates or enlargements. In a pinch, they'll send me out to photograph a crime scene."

Selphie got a number of questions which she dealt with quite well. Quistis just sat back and watched. There was a reason they always started with Selphie. The young woman was funny and engaging, and she almost immediately drew people in. By the time they made their next stop, the class would be fully engaged in the trip. The one drawback to Selphie was the fact that once she started talking, it was hard to get her to stop. Quistis would know; they had shared a room for several years at their foster home.

Quistis managed to pry the students away from Selphie's lab and led them down the hall to their next stop.

"This building wasn't actually designed to be a crime lab, so we've had to be inventive about how we put together the various parts of the lab. For instance, Selphie's lab was originally a manager's office. It's one of the smaller labs in here since she's often the only person working there. Our next stop is the trace lab. During dayshift and swing shift, we typically have lab techs who actually do most of the processing and crime scene investigators who do the actual collection of evidence." Quistis gave them a rueful smile. "However, graveyard is the smallest shift and sometimes we have to double up positions. Zell Dinct is a crime scene investigator, but he also runs trace during graveyard. Since it's been a quiet night so far, he's actually in the lab."

A spiky haired blond looked up as they entered the room. "Hey, Quisty. These the kids?"

Zell didn't look that much older than the college students. He smiled at them, nearly bouncing with energy.

"So, I'm in charge of trace. About half the time I get to go out in the field and collect evidence. Just so you know, trace evidence is just about anything that has left some sort of contact at the crime screen. Fingerprints, blood spatter, glass, dirt, it can be just about anything and can be found just about anywhere. It makes for some very interesting times. We actually have a fingerprint specialist on staff so I don't mess around with that too much."

Zell continued to explain about his job, pulling out examples at random. Thankfully, he kept the material to appropriate subjects and examples. There had been one time when they had a high school class come through that Zell had brought out the examples from the time he had needed to gather trace from a boutique full of sex toys. Needless to say that hadn't exactly gone over well. Tonight, however, there were no such problems.

Once Zell was done, Quistis moved the group to the ballistics lab. This tended to be a favorite stop. Irvine knew what he was doing when it came to guns, and there was something about the weapons that seemed to fascinate people. Irvine was in the middle of a reconstruction when they arrived, so the students got to see just what a twenty-two caliber bullet could do to a jello salad. He was trying to figure out how the bullet they got from their crime scene had ended up in a similar situation.

Irvine pulled off the ear muff looking contraption and favored the class with a smile. "So, y'all have mosied over to my neck of the woods? Let's see if I can top whatever Zell pulled out to impress you."

The students were more than a little disappointed that they weren't actually allowed to handle or shoot any of the guns in ballistics, but they were still fascinated as Irvine walked them through the different things he did and techniques he used. He had a tendency to illustrate each part with an example, and Quistis had to admit that he was a good storyteller. She just wished that he would refrain from using them to get out of work. More than once she had been subjected to some incredible story that explained why he couldn't come in that night or why he was late.

DNA was next on their list of places to visit. On their way there, the group ran into a young woman dressed in neat blue suit. She smiled at Quistis.

"Hey Quisty. Is this another tour group?"

Quistis nodded. "The intro to forensic science class from the university."

She turned to the group. "This is Rinoa Heartily, the lab's PR person."

"Why does a crime lab need PR?" one of the students asked.

Rinoa laughed. "You would be surprised. For one thing, we may work with the police department, but we're a separate entity, and there are times when the police are perfectly happy to throw us to the media wolves. We also are in part funded by tax revenue. If for some reason we wanted to get a bond passed that would provide more funding for the crime lab, I would be in charge of that. Have fun on your tour."

Rinoa headed down the hall, and Quistis got her group moving again. The DNA lab was a little larger than the rest, mostly due to the amount of space some of the machines took up. A young woman with a pair of braids was bent over a microscope. Quistis smiled. Hypatia Toshokan rather reminded her of herself at times. The young woman was an expert at her job, but extremely shy at times. Still, her budding romance with Zell seemed to be helping her come out of her shell some. Quistis cleared her throat, and Hypatia looked up. She took in the class standing behind Quistis.

"Hi." Her voice was soft.

"This is Hypatia Toshokan, our DNA expert," Quistis introduced her. "She's in charge of our on site DNA analysis."

Hypatia was not as an engaging speaking as some of the others, but she did have a wealth of knowledge to share. Quistis tried to help her out as much as possible by pointing out good examples and keeping her on track. Once Hypatia got started talking about something she was interested in, her shyness seemed to disappear, and she was much more comfortable. Hypatia walked the class through the realities of DNA analysis, including the amount of time it actually took to get results versus what they saw on TV.

When they had finished there, it was time to visit Quistis' own domain: the morgue. Some people might find it a little off putting, but it was her home territory. Of course, as her friends had mentioned before, the fact that she had chosen to become a forensic pathologist marked her as a little odd when it came to death. Once everyone was inside the room, Quistis began.

"So, this is our morgue. While I may be in charge of the graveyard shift, I spend most of my time here. I'm one of the lab's coroners as well as a forensic pathologist. Depending on where you work, the rules and training required for the position of coroner differ. In my case, I have the highest level of training and education that would ever be required for the position. My job is to determine the cause, time, and manner of death. Because of this I work closely with many of the others in our lab. Truthfully, only a small percentage of the deaths actually require a full autopsy."

She went on to explain her day to day responsibilities and the different methods she used. Quistis was halfway through explaining how a typical night on the job went when she was interrupted.

"Hey, Lady Death, have you gotten to the part about how you used to make troublesome staff members in one of the cold chambers to mellow them out?"

Quistis rolled her eyes at the tall blond man. "Ignore him. He's just making things up. And now you've met one of the hazards of this profession: obnoxious cops."

"I resemble that remark."

"Exactly."

The students were looking confused, so Quistis made introductions.

"This is Seifer Almasy, one of the police officers I work with on a regular basis." Quistis sighed. "He's not as funny as he thinks he is."

Seifer stuck out his tongue at her. She ignored him. They were the oldest two of Cid and Edea Kramer's foster children. Their relationship had always included teasing and bickering, though these days they were a lot closer to being friends than they had been as children. Seifer considered it one of his missions in life to come irritate her at work when he had nothing better to do. He was one hell of a cop though.

She continued her spiel about her job and the morgue with Seifer interjecting comments wherever he saw fit, typically snarky ones. Though Quistis did have to admit, he had some points. Like the fact that some cops didn't know the first thing about what to do with a dead body and could mess up a crime scene quite easily. Or the fact that some cops seemed to think that real life lab work worked the same as it did on TV. She couldn't count the number of times people had come to her wanting tests results five minutes after the samples had gotten to the lab. And Seifer could also provide the cop's point of view about the lab. He and his partner didn't completely rely on the lab to solve their cases, but they worked pretty closely with the lab much of the time.

Still, Seifer's presence caused her to take twice as long as she had planned with this part of the tour, in part because of all his interruptions. It was something of a relief when Squall showed up to drag him off to a crime scene. Quistis had no doubt that whatever crime those two were off to handle, she'd hear about it before her shift was over. Seifer and Squall might be two of the best cops on the force, but lord did they know how to find trouble. Of course, given that they had been able to do that as children as well, Quistis didn't know why she had expected them to grow out of it.

Once Seifer had left, it took surprisingly little time for her to finish up the tour and field any remaining questions. Quistis saw the class out of the lab and took a moment to lean against the wall and catch her breath. Well, that was over with. With a sigh, Quistis closed her eyes a moment. Then she opened them and pushed off the wall. Time to get back to work. Her shift wasn't over yet.


	2. Warfare

**Warfare**

All in all, there were a number of drawbacks to being on the graveyard shift. Quistis honestly didn't care about most of the things that people would name like inconvenient hours or the increased workload due to the smaller size of the shift. No, to her the main drawback to graveyard was the fact that most of the people who worked it knew one another and had grown up with one another. It was also a benefit, but right now it was clearly a drawback.

It was the reason that she was holed up in the morgue counting the seconds until she could go home. There was no way in hell she was going out there without an extremely good reason. Not when a full out prank war was going on. Quistis wasn't entirely sure who had started it. The most likely suspects were either Irvine or Zell. No mater whoever had started it though, it had escalated very quickly to the point where nearly everyone on graveyard shift was involved. This made things rather dangerous when it came to getting through an entire shift without walking into one prank or another.

Quistis herself had not participated in the war as of yet. However, she was fairly certain that she would before the end. It was inevitable. It was also unfair to the other for her to get involved before things got serious. There had only ever been one other person who had been able to out prank her when they were growing out. Actually, the jury was still out on that. Some people agreed that she and Seifer were dead even, and some believed that he had gotten the last laugh. Quistis herself wasn't too sure which was the truth. And it was only a matter of time before she ended up taking things into her own hands.

She sighed and turned up the radio. She still had another two autopsies to do before she could leave. Quistis felt the need to do a little research. While she had a number of pranks in her repertoire, she felt that this current war called for something new and unexpected. She continued to work on the body on her table as she puzzled over the challenge of coming up with something new in the back of her head. So caught up in both the problem and her work, Quistis didn't hear the morgue door opening. She didn't even realize that there was someone else in the room until the sound of someone setting things down on one of her counters filled the air.

Quistis whirled around to find Seifer unloading a bag of take out. He looked up a gestured the large cup from the nearby coffee shop.

"I brought you caffeine and dinner. I figure we can come up with a plan while we eat. How much longer do you need?"

She frowned at the body. "Twenty minutes tops. And what is this plan that you speak of?"

He ran a hand through his short hair and sighed. "As fun as its been watching Chicken Wuss walk around with pink hair and Puberty Boy getting caught in the crossfire, things are beginning to get out of hand. Do you realize that there are only three cops who are willing to come over here during graveyard shift?"

Quistis sighed. She hadn't been aware it had gotten that bad. "I see. And the best way to stop a prank war is to pull something off that is next to impossible to top."

Seifer smirked. "Exactly. Which is where the two of us come in. No one has ever been able to out prank either of us, so logically, we're the ones to put an end to this. We just need to come up with something spectacular. Finish up your autopsy. Then we can get to work."

She just shook her head. This had disaster written all over it. And she would be walking right into it because there really wasn't another way to bring all this to an end otherwise. Quistis wasn't sure what Seifer had in mind, but under normal circumstances when he said things like "spectacular", it was a signal that the people around should take cover as quickly as possible. However, it was exactly what she needed to end the prank war.

The autopsy was finished more quickly than she had expected. There had been no

anomalies that she could find. With a sigh, Quistis washed her hands and kicked off her shoes before joining Seifer at the counter with the takeout. To her delight, it was not only Chinese, but there were both wantons and her favorite cashew chicken as well. Seifer nudged the coffee cup towards her.

"It's your regular chai latte, Quisty."

She wrinkled her nose at the nickname but accepted the drink. Seifer waited until she had polished off most of her dinner before bringing up the subject of the prank again.

"So I've been considering this for a while now. We've had almost all of the classics show up or variations of them. What we need is something new to put an end to all this."

Quistis raised an eyebrow. "And did you have something new in mind or is it my job to come up with the brilliant plan?"

"Like you could."

They snarked at one another for a few minutes before settling down to really debating prank ideas. Something new was hard to come up with when they had pulled just about every prank feasible. Of course, they were no longer quite as limited in supplies as they had been as foster children. In fact, they had a much more impressive arsenal to work with now. However, that still didn't help unless they could come up with an idea. Several of the pranks the two of them did brainstorm were rejected either because they were too complicated or impractical for one reason or another.

With a sigh, Quistis disposed of the empty take out cartons. "I'm not sure we're going to get anywhere tonight. I've got a half hour before I'm off. Let's call it quits for the night, and you can take me out to a late breakfast tomorrow, so we can figure things out."

"Oh, I can, can I? It's your idea. Shouldn't breakfast be on you?"

"The prank itself was your idea. Therefore, you buy all food consumed while working on it. Besides, it probably wouldn't hurt to keep our planning to places where our esteemed colleagues will have trouble eavesdropping."

"You have a point," Seifer conceded. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

Thankfully, the night finished quietly with only one small prank (which she was a witness to rather than a victim of) to liven things up briefly before she headed home. Quistis was more than ready to just fall into bed and try and catch up on her sleep. It had been a hell of a week so far, and it was only half over. The workload itself hadn't been so bad, but the pranks had made everything a little more tense. Quistis herself had only been a victim twice. This had more to do with bad timing than with being targeted. People had learned early one that she did not take well to being pranked, and that she retaliated when they least expected it.

When her alarm clock went of the next morning, she seriously considered throwing it at the wall. Quistis had not slept well. Still, she had things that needed to get done today, so instead she turned it off and dragged herself out of bed. After a shower, she felt more human. The woman tossed on a ratty pair of jeans and an old t-shirt. It was laundry day as a search of both her closet and her dresser proved that she had nothing to wear. After throwing on a ratty pair of leggings and an old university sweatshirt, Quistis got to work on dealing with her laundry. She'd just gotten the washer loaded when her doorbell rang. With a sigh, she went to answer the door.

Seifer's gaze took in her attire. "I see we're going for the graduate student look once again."

She stuck her tongue out at him. Seifer just laughed.

"So, how does Denny's sound? Or does my Lady Death require a more elegant pancake house?"

"Denny's is fine. Let me grab my purse and some shoes."

Fifteen minutes later, they were perusing their menus. Quistis found she had a hankering for bacon and powdered sugar and so ordered the French toast. The waitress took their orders, after flirting with Seifer and giving Quistis a disdainful look. Once she was gone, Quistis got to business.

"So, I've figured out our victims. I want Zell and Irvine. If Selphie also gets caught, that's fine."

Seifer smirked at her. "Feeling a little put out with the idiot boys are we?"

"They most likely started this whole mess. It's only fair that they should also end it."

Their food arrived, and the two of them applied themselves both to the food and to planning just how to torture their victims. It took most of the meal for them to hash out a working plan, but Quistis was pretty happy with the idea Seifer had come up with. It would take quite a bit of preparation on both their parts, but she was pretty sure that the results would be worth it. She was also pretty sure that they would never know what hit them.

It took most of the week for Quistis and Seifer to get their grand prank set up. The hardest part had actually been getting everything in place without causing any suspicion. Given the state of things around the lab lately, people had become rather paranoid, and it was rather hard to explain why she and Seifer might be lurking in a supply closet. They didn't have Selphie and Irvine's excuse of making out. However, the time did come at last when they were all ready to pull off the grand prank. Everything was in place, and she and Seifer had their parts down cold. Quistis even had a digital camera in the pocket of her lab coat in order to capture the results. She was quite certain that there would some very good opportunities for blackmail coming out of this. It never hurt to have something extra in her arsenal when it came to the idiot boys.

The evidence was brought in, ostensively from one of Seifer's crime scenes. However, one of the samples had been carefully concocted in order to both intrigue those studying and react when tested. It was only a half hour later when the alarms went off. Quistis calmly watched as Irvine and Zell raced to the nearest emergency shower station. Zell yanked the lever, and water cascaded over the two men. Of course, it didn't take long for either of them to realize that this wasn't normal water. Normal water doesn't turn one's skin purple.

Quistis bit back giggles as she snapped pictures of their reactions. It took the boys nearly two minutes to realize what she was doing as they had quite an audience. The looks on their faces when they realized just who was responsible for their current predicament were worth capturing. Quistis shared a smirk with Seifer who had appeared behind her. Then she stepped forward.

"Don't bother trying to wash it off. You're stuck with your new tans for three days." She turned to address the assembled audience. "All right, people. Back to work. There's another four hours before the shift ends. Irvine, Zell, go change and get back to work."

Quistis took on last glance at the sight of the two purple men before heading back to the morgue. Seifer fell into step beside her.

"Not bad, Lady Death. Not bad at all. I doubt they'll be fool enough to try and get you back."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "If they do try, I'm letting them know that you were in part responsible."

Seifer laughed. "Never fear, my Lady Death, if they prank you, I'm prepared to exact revenge on your behalf. I've got get back to work. I'll pick you up after your shift for a victory breakfast."

Quistis just shook her head as she watched him leave. Hopefully now things would get back to normal.


	3. Stuff of Legends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This particular chapter was inspired by the CSI episode Ending Happy.

**Stuff of Legends**

Quistis fought the urge to bang her head against her desk. This was really ridiculous. She didn't think she had ever had a case this complex before. And while Quistis was all for a challenge, this was closer to an Elizabethan farce than anything else. It wasn't fair that she got stuck with this one. She should have been able to just end her shift and go home, but no, Seifer had to bring her one last body. And of course, it couldn't be a simple open and shut case. No, it had to be the most ridiculous set of circumstances that she could imagine.

Starting with the victim herself. Traci Paisley Carlsie was the only child of one of the richest men in Balamb. The heiress had been known as something of a wild socialite until about six months ago. Then she had disappeared off the face of the earth. The general assumption had been that her father had finally whisked her off to rehab. Her team had found out the truth of the matter tonight. Traci had run off and gotten herself a job at The Bunny Hutch. The establishment was just over both the city and county lines, but the county line was the big thing. Because Fire Cavern County had legalized prostitution.

So, Quistis had a dead heiress who had been acting as a prostitute on hands. She was quite thankful that she didn't have to worry about figuring just who had killed the woman. That was Seifer's job. However, Quistis did have to determine the cause of death which was easier said than done. Traci had been found floating in the Bunny Hutch's giant hot tub. She did have water in her lungs. There was also blunt force trauma to her head. Those were the first things Quistis had discovered and reported. But as she soon found out, that wasn't necessarily what had killed her.

Then she had found the hole in the woman's next that had inadvertently given her a tracheotomy which was responsible most likely for the water in her lungs. Which as it turned out might have saved the woman's life at some point because test results later showed that the woman had been having a severe allergic reaction at some point in the evening. Those same test results also showed a small amount of snake venom in the woman as well. Quistis had also found puncture wounds on the woman's ankle. Now she just had to figure out what order all of these occurred in and what actually caused the woman's death in the end.

Quistis had started by laying out a timeline of the various injuries. The puncture wounds were the oldest injury, and they were most likely the site of the snake venom. Given the toxicology results from the blood, that had happened about two hours before Traci's death. There had been enough venom that it would have killed her eventually, but Quistis noted that it would have taken at least forty-eight hours to do so. Also, the wounds weren't made by a snake's teeth but by two hypodermic needles. While it did rule out the snake venom as cause of death, someone had injected the woman with snake venom.

After that, there was the allergic reaction which according to the test results was caused by peanut oil. Traci had gone into anaphylactic shock at this point. However, this was about when she had been shot through the throat (by an arrow none the less) which had actually bought her enough time to use an epi-pen. At this point, Traci had been hit over the head with a cast iron skillet and then had wandered off. She had then lay down on one of the lounge chairs by the hot tub only to have tip over and dump her into the hot tub. And that had been the end of her.

All in all, it had taken about ten hours to put all that together. And every time she had eliminated a cause of death, she'd had to call Seifer and tell him. It had in fact, made him rather grumpy. Apparently, quite a few people had been involved with this particular crime, and he was annoyed that every time he got a confession, he couldn't make it stick because what the person did wasn't the cause of death. Quistis was more than glad that it wasn't her job to deal with the human side of the case. Well, at least the living human side of the case.

But she still didn't know what to put down as the cause of death. Quistis really hated putting "unknown/cardiac arrest" in the little box. It made her feel dumb and inadequate. Intellectually, Quistis knew she was neither, but she would admit that she had some self-confidence issues. It came from getting her medical degree at such a young age. She'd constantly had to prove that knew what she was doing and that she belonged there. It hadn't allowed for much leeway when it came to making mistakes or not having the answer. Besides, it looked really silly to have "unknown" as cause of death when there were clearly so many things wrong with the woman when she died.

Quistis sighed again and stared at her computer screen. She had the strong urge to throw something heavy at it, like the bone saw. The shutting of the morgue door made her jump. Quistis spun around in her chair. Seifer held up his hands.

"Easy there, Lady Death. I just came to see if you wanted to go get coffee. You've been down here nearly twelve hours straight now, and your staff thinks you might murder them."

She let out a groan. "I'm not that grumpy surely."

"Don't call me Shirley," came Seifer's quick retort. "Well, you're not the only one. Fuujin kicked me out of station and said not to come back until I had gotten control of my temper."

Caffeine really did sound lovely to her. Quistis stretched and rose from her seat.

"All right. But I need to be back in twenty minutes."

Seifer smirked. "Would I waylay you and keep you from work?"

"Absolutely."

He laughed, and the two of them headed for the exit. Quistis didn't worry about the case being forgotten. This was the sort of thing that the lab turned into legends.


	4. Just Another Night on the Job

**Just Another Night on the Job**

"Good evening, Dr. Trepe."

Quistis smiled at Rinoa who was manning the front desk. "Evening, Rinoa. Where's Hypatia? I thought she was covering the front desk while Sara was on maternity leave."

The brunette grinned at her. "I offered to cover for her since Zell wanted to take her out tonight. I'd get back there if I were you. It looks like it's going to be a busy night."

"Thanks for the heads up."

Graveyard shift was always interesting, especially when you were the coroner, and tonight she was the only medical examiner on duty. Most of the time there was at least one other M.E. around. It tended to be a good thing, especially if Quistis got caught up with some sort of administrative hassle. The one thing she disliked about being a shift supervisor was the amount of paperwork she inevitably ended up with. Quistis quickly changed into her scrubs and headed down to the morgue. She entered the room to find all the tables full. It was going to be a busy night. Quistis pulled on her gloves and got to work.

She had several bodies to deal with. It didn't take her long to dive into work, and before too long, she was so absorbed in it that she had lost track of time.

"What have you got for us tonight, Lady Death?"

Quistis grinned at the pair of detectives standing in the door. "Your suspicious death was simply a heart attack, Almasy. Are you loosing your touch?"

"Hey, that was the rookie's call, not mine." Seifer shot back.

Quistis just grinned and waved them over to the table. Seven of them who'd grown up in the same foster home had ended up working together as adults. Between the original groups and their various friends and significant others, the graveyard shift almost completely consisted of them. Of course, given that their foster father was the current lab director, perhaps it wasn't surprising that all of them had gone into some part of law enforcement.

She and Seifer bantered over the other two bodies he had sent in. They were oldest of the crew and had always been close, even if some of the time it was close to killing one another.

"So, are you ready to get your butt kicked at the annual PD versus Lab baseball game?" Seifer smirked at her.

"And who has won for the three years, hmm?"

"There were extenuating circumstances!"

"Of course there were." She handed him the autopsy report. "Here you are."

"Thanks, Lady Death. Can I take you out from breakfast after shift?"

She shook her head, glancing up at the clock on the wall. "Thanks, Seifer, but I'll be taking off in about fifteen minutes. I've got court tomorrow."

"Rain check then?"

"Of course."

He waved as he headed out. Quistis finished putting away her equipment and filled out the last few forms left before she shut down the computer. She flipped off the lights with sigh and went to change clothes. Just another night on the job.


	5. Play Ball

**Play Ball**

The Balamb Crime Lab versus Balamb Police Department baseball game was a thing of fame and legend. It was the major event of the year for both organizations, and the rivalry was intense. Even close friendships and romantic relationships took backseat to the game. And the Lab won more often than not. It was not something the police department liked to admit, but it was true. And Quistis was ready to keep the record in the lab's favor. She was their star player after all, and besides, it would annoy Seifer.

And that was another tradition of hers, annoying Seifer. They'd been at that one for years, ever since they had first come to Edea's as kids. Their relationship had always involved bickering no matter what stage they were in. It was simply a fact of life.

The day of the game dawned bright and clear. Quistis was up early enough that she managed to have her breakfast and plenty of caffeine before she made her way to the park where the game was held. Dressed in jeans that were only good for baseball and painting, her lucky shirt, and a Balamb PD cap she'd stolen from Seifer, Quistis was one of the first people to arrive. She took the time to stake out a spot in the bleachers for her stuff and then started stretching. It wasn't long before others started to arrive: both players and the cheering sections.

Quistis didn't pay them much attention as others started their pre-game routines and set up the barbeques. Once the game was over, it would be time for lunch. That was another part of the tradition. Quistis let out a squeak when some one grabbed her from behind. Then she rammed her elbow into their stomach.

"Oof. Damn it, Quisty. That hurt."

She turned. "You should know better than to sneak up on me."

Seifer grunted and glared at her. Quistis just smiled.

"So, are you ready to concede defeat today, Lady Death?"

Quistis snorted. "Please. I'll concede if it happens. Which it probably won't."

"We'll just see about that."

"Same terms as usual?"

"Of course."

"See you on the field."

Quistis smirked as he headed over to join the rest of the police department team. The bet between the two of them was also a longstanding tradition. The terms were fairly simply. Whoever scored the most points in the game (regardless of which team won) won the bet. If Quistis won, Seifer bought her all of her caffeine for the next month. If Seifer won, Quistis was at his beck and call for case for the next month. Seifer hadn't won in the past three years, and Quistis didn't intended to change that any time soon.

She joined the rest of the crime lab team in their warm-ups. Cid, the head of the lab, and Caraway, the chief of police, flipped a coin to see who would bat first. The police department won, and Quistis took her spot at third base. Selphie was pitching. The first police officer to step up to the plate was Squall Leonhart. His first attempt was a strike, but he connected with the second pitch sending over to right field. The lab tech fumbled for the ball then threw it to Quistis. However, Squall had decided to play it safe and stay at second base.

The next three batters were mediocre at best. Each of them managed to make it to first base though and ensured that their team scored at least some points. Then it was Seifer's turn at bat. On the first pitch, he hit high into the left field and scored a double for his team. He smirked at her from his spot on second base. Quistis just rolled her eyes. It was early in the came yet. There was plenty of time of things to change. The game was by no means over.

As if to prove her point, shortly after Seifer made it to home base, the police department got their three outs, and the field changed hands. Quistis grinned as she stepped up to the plate. She was first to bat this time, and she planned on making it count. She would have preferred to be farther back in the line up if only so she could perhaps score more on her first time at bat, but she would deal.

Quistis nailed the ball on the first pitch. It was easily a homer. She flashed Seifer a smirk as she crossed the home plate. Things were off to a good start. She even got up to bat again that inning. And this time she hit a triple play. Not at all a shabby start. By the time, they had to relinquish the dugout, the score was 8 – 3 in the lab's favor. But Quistis knew that the five point lead didn't mean anything this early in the game.

She was right too. It was the closest game yet since she had been here. No matter which team seemed to gain a lead, the other team would soon catch up. By the seventh inning, the score was 27 – 29 in the police department's favor. Quistis wasn't about to let that score stand. By the time it was her turn to bat again, the bases were loaded. Seifer, who was now pitching, smirked at her from the mound. Quistis stuck her tongue out at him.

The first pitch was strike. She didn't let that faze her. When she swung at the second pitch, the bat connected with a resounding thwack, and the ball was sent high over the fence. Quistis paused a moment to smirk at Seifer before running the bases. She had safely crossed home base by the time the ball was back in the park. Quistis smirked at Seifer; he just shook his head. The game wasn't over yet.

But for the first time since the game had started, the crime lab team was managing to keep ahead of the police department score wise. It was a slim lead, only one point, but it was still a lead. And by the time they took the field once again, the lab team had managed to take that one point lead and turn it into a seven point lead. Not bad for a bunch of science geeks. Their streak of good luck didn't end there either. By the time the fourth member of the police team stepped up to the plate, there had already been two outs. The current batter managed to get to first base. That left two people on bases when Seifer stepped up to the bat.

Quistis shifted a little in anticipation. Seifer would try for a triple play. She wanted to get as many of the players on his team out as she could. He hit the ball with a great deal of force, sending out into right field. However, luck was with her team. It didn't take Rinoa long to grab the ball and toss it to Quistis, who tagged Seifer just before her reached third base.

"I believe you're out, Almasy."

He tugged on her ponytail. "Just remember turn about is fair play, Lady Death."

"Bring it."

Seifer tried; she had to give him that. Of course, the look on his face when she completed another home run for her team was rather priceless. He looked about ready to eat his hat. Given that she so rarely got that much of a rise out of the man, Quistis couldn't help but enjoying it. Most of the time, Seifer was the one getting a rise out of her. Turn about really was fair play.

The baseball game ended with a score of 42 – 39 in the crime lab's favor. Not only that, but Quistis had scored thirteen of those forty-two points. Seifer had scored twelve. She would call that a very satisfactory ending to the game. And now she was starving. It was definitely time to see what was on the barbeques to eat. The winning team got to go first, and it didn't take Quistis long to put together a plate of hot dogs, chips, and, in a token attempt to be healthy, an apple. She snagged a bottle of iced tea from one of the coolers and went off in search of a quite spot to sit down and eat.

It didn't take long for her quiet corner of a picnic table to fill up with people. The orphanage gang tended to stick together, and now that the game was over, they were no longer on opposite sides. The crime lab staff showed up first: Irvine, Selphie, Zell, and Rinoa. Hypatia joined them as well. She was nominally one of them since she was dating Zell. The crew that had ended up at the police department followed shortly afterwards: Seifer and Squall, along with Fuujin and Raijin. Like Hypatia, Fuujin and Raijin weren't really a part of the original cohort, but they were considered family due to their close association with Seifer.

Their conversation soon turned to old stories, and a competition unfolded of who had the best story about how they got detention in school. Quistis didn't have much fodder for it unfortunately. Her one and only detention had been because she'd corrected a teacher in front of the class. It hadn't been her fault that he was wrong and couldn't accept it. So Quistis mostly just sat back and listened to her friends trade stories. It wasn't often that they all got together without a crime being committed.

Somehow, she ended up leaning against Seifer with his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Really, it wasn't a bad way to spend the day. Of course, they'd just have to see who would win next year.


	6. One of Those Nights

**One of Those Nights**

Quistis hated court days. Court itself wasn't so bad, but the shoes that she had to wear with her suit left her feet aching for hours afterward. Those shoes were now somewhere among the potted plans over in the corner. With a sigh, she flopped onto her couch. She had time for a quick nap before heading in for the night's shift. She closed her eyes and let go.

Her cell rang just as she was dropping off. With a curse, Quistis fumbled for her phone.

"Trepe."

"Quistis, we need you to come in. We've got a multiple homicide that looks to be tricky. You're the most experienced medical examiner we have." Cid sounded regretful. "Can you be onsite in a half hour?"

"Of course, sir. Can you give me the address?"

It took her all of five minutes to get out the door. She'd swing by the lab to change clothes and pick-up a department vehicle and then head out to the site. Quistis sighed. It was going to be a long night.

The sinking feeling got worse when she arrived at the scene to find some very green around the gills police officers outside. By the looks of things, it was a more gruesome scene than even they were used to. Seifer met her at the door, his face stony, and she could see Squall just inside with a similar expression.

"You're not going to like this, Quisty. We've got three victims, all under ten. It was pretty brutal."

She nodded, steeling herself; she hated child victims. "All right. I'll give you a preliminary time of death then bring the bodies to the lab for autopsies. I'll put a priority on this."

Despite the warning, Quistis felt the bile rise in her throat as surveyed the scene. Poor little dears. No child deserved to die like this. She took care of the preliminaries on autopilot, doing her best to focus on the science not the full scene in front of her. It was something of a relief to finally zip up the body bags. She looked up to find both of the detectives still hovering.

"Give me three hours for the autopsies. I'll have the preliminary results by then, and any other tests we need will be in process."

Seifer nodded and squeezed her shoulder. Her assistants had arrived with a van, and Quistis supervised the loading of the bodies before heading back to her own vehicle. She started the car with a sigh. This was not shaping up to be a good night. Twenty minutes later, Quistis bit her lip as she gloved up. She hated cases like these. They hit a little too close to home for her. Quistis was well aware that she could have been one of those children on the table.

Her parents had been murdered when she was three, and she had been sent to live with Edea and Cid. When Quistis was eight, she had been adopted by the Trepes. That had lasted all of two years. The marriage had dissolved in a flurry of violence and accusations, and she had been shunted back into the system. And these memories weren't helping her find who did this to these three girls.

Two and a half hours later, she had most of the results. The toxicology report hadn't come back yet, but she doubted it would tell her anything she didn't already know. The results weren't good. The morgue door slid open, and Quistis looked up from the completed report to find not only Seifer and Squall but also their boss, Captain Caraway. Seifer held out a large paper coffee cup.

"We brought you a bribe. It's your regular Chai latte."

She took it with a nodded of thanks. "I have most of the results. What do you need?"

"Cause of death. We need to cut down the list of suspects, so we can find the fourth sister." Caraway spoke. "I trust you can help us with that."

"There's a fourth victim?" Quistis kept her voice from breaking.

"Not yet. Not if we get to her on time. The lab is already working on it." Seifer smiled grimly. "What do you have for us, Lady Death?"

"The cause of death is blunt force trauma for all of them. From the bruising it's clear that they were beaten with fists, not any other objects. All three victims were raped before they were killed. There was at least an hour between each death, and the two younger victims show signs of being restrained." Quistis took a breath. "From the size of the fists, I can estimate the size of the attacker as somewhere between five foot four and five foot seven. These are the full results."

Her hands shook only a little as she handed over the report. Seifer squeezed her shoulder as Caraway and Squall flipped through her findings.

"Thank you, Dr. Trepe." Caraway nodded. "I think this will be a great help."

They headed out, but Seifer paused in the doorway. Quistis dredged up a grim smile. "Almasy, nail this bastard for me."

He nodded. "Will do."

Alone in the morgue, Quistis sought to find something to keep her busy until something new came up to occupy her time. She ended up sipping her tea and working on paperwork. It wasn't a very good distraction. She had turned on the small police radio that had been installed in the morgue and was doing her best not to jump every time there was the crackle of static announcing a broadcast. There had been next to nothing about Seifer's case. Quistis had a whole myriad of reasons to be concerned about the case. But right now she just wanted to know what exactly was happening. She hated being left out of the loop. Perhaps technically Quistis had no reason to still be involved in the case, but she still wanted, needed to know the outcome.

The whole situation had her feeling uneasy and unsettled. There weren't often cases that effected her like this. She hoped for the child's sake that she was found in time. Quistis really didn't want to think about having another little body on her table tonight. She really didn't want to face it. It was heartbreaking enough that she'd had three of them all ready. Quistis sighed and threw her empty cup into the trash with as much force as she could muster. She really needed something to do that would keep her mind occupied, not just her hands.

Quistis jumped when her cell phone rang.

"Trepe."

"Quisty, I need you to come here. Raijin will pick you up in two minutes."

She frowned. "Seifer, what--"

"I'll explain when you get here." And with that he hung up.

She stared at her phone for a minute and then went to collect her purse and one of the portable first aid kits they had around. Quistis was ready and waiting by the time Raijin and Fuujin arrived to collect her. Neither of them were willing to explain, though they both looked rather grim. Thankfully, the car ride was short, mostly thanks to the police siren. However, Quistis couldn't but help noticing that the siren and lights went off before they arrived at their destination.

Seifer helped her out of the car. He looked rather worn to her eyes.

"We got him, Quisty," there was a quite sense of triumph in his voice. "And we think the girl's all right."

"Think?"

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "None of us can reach her. It looks like she's breathing though. I figured we'd see if you could talk her out, and if that doesn't work, I think you are small enough to get at her."

Quistis was led into a rather dilapidated house. Squall was standing guard by the kitchen door. He nodded to her as Seifer ushered her inside. Quistis could make out what she guessed as the entrance of a crawlspace. Seifer was right that it was small. Quistis wasn't even sure she could get all the way inside it.

"She's in there. Her name is Catriona." Seifer squeezed her shoulder.

Quistis nodded and got down on her hands and knees so she could peer inside the crawlspace. Seifer handed her a flashlight.

"Catriona?" Quistis kept her voice soft and gentle. "Hey. My name is Quisty. I work with the police. Do you want to come out? It's safe now. I won't let anyone hurt you."

There was a slight rustle of movement, though the girl didn't respond. Quistis kept talking.

"Please come out. We've been looking for you all night. Are you hungry? If you are, I'm sure we can find you something nice and warm to eat. And it can't be very comfortable in there."

"Can I have some hot cocoa?" the little whisper was barely audible.

Quistis smiled. "Of course, sweetheart. Do you want marshmallows or whipped cream?"

Two minutes later, Quistis had the little girl in her arms. The woman wanted to get the child out of this house, so she could get a better look at her. Quistis had already spotted bruises on her skin. There was an ambulance waiting for them when they got outside. Quistis waved off the paramedics though she sat down inside the vehicle with the girl. Most of her patients were dead, but she knew enough that she could take care of a preliminary examination before they got to the hospital. Besides, none of the paramedics were female, and Quistis didn't know how Catriona would react to some strange man.

Thankfully, the girl didn't have anything other than bruises and scrapes, though it was rather clear that she had been traumatized by what she had witnessed. Seifer had appeared at her elbow about halfway through the examination with a cup of hot chocolate from Seattle's Best. It was even topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Catriona's hands shook, but she was able to hold the cup herself and drink. Once she had finished checking over the child, Quistis signaled the paramedics and got herself and the girl buckled in. It was a quick ride to the hospital, and Quistis was able to put Catriona in the hands of a pediatric trauma specialist.

Once Catriona had been whisked out of sight, Quistis let out a sigh and leaned against the wall. She was wrung out. This had been much more emotionally involved than most of the cases she worked on. Seifer's hand curled around her elbow.

"Come on, Quisty. We'll go take care of the paperwork, and then I'll take you home. I'll even spring for breakfast if you feel up to it."

She offered him a tired smile and let him herd her out to the waiting police car. Instead of taking her back to the crime lab, he took to the precinct. Quistis assumed that this was Seifer's way of ensuring that she didn't go straight back to work. Not that she was planning on it. While she could be extremely workaholic at times, tonight Quistis really wasn't up for more dead bodies. Besides, all the paperwork she had to fill out was here anyway. They work in companionable silence at Seifer's desk, filling out the preliminary paperwork. Everything else could wait until later.

Quistis probably wouldn't admit it if asked, but she found having company nice tonight. This case had disturbed her, and she doubted being left alone in the morgue with her thoughts would do her any good right now. Things had ended fairly well, but her mind could easily conjure all the things that could have gone wrong. They weren't pleasant thoughts. The bustle of the precinct was a good distraction and listening to Seifer mutter over his reports was honestly amusing. His inner dialogue wasn't perhaps politically correct or child friendly, but it was funny.

With the last of the paperwork signed off on, the two of them headed out to Seifer's car, debating breakfast places. Neither of them were in the mood for a big breakfast, but something in their stomachs before they went to bed would definitely be beneficial. After nearly five minutes of arguing, the two of them finally settled on an all night bistro that was a favorite of Quistis'. It wasn't long before they were served: coffee and a bagel for Seifer and tea and a croissant for Quistis.

She sipped at her tea and let out a deep sigh.

"Hell of a night, eh, Quisty?

Quistis nodded. "Yes. Do me a favor and try not to catch another case like this any time soon."

"I don't ever want to deal with a case like these again. Thank god it's over."

She heartily agreed. The conversation turned to lighter subject matter, and Quistis felt herself begin to relax and unwind. It had been a long night, but it was morning now.


	7. Playing With Death

**Playing With Death**

Quistis let out a soft sigh and stretched. She had exactly three more forms to fill out, and then she could go home and get some sleep. It was just as well really. She wasn't really going to have time for more than a catnap this morning. Quistis was getting together with Selphie, Hypatia, and Fuujin to plan Rinoa's bridal shower. Squall had finally proposed to the lab's PR spokesperson after dating her for nearly three years now, and everyone was pretty excited about the upcoming wedding. Quistis had found herself named as maid of honor, and while it was far more work than she had expected, it was also kind of fun.

Settling back into her chair, Quistis reached for the mug of coffee she had been nursing for the past half hour. It was a quiet night in the morgue, and Quistis had been using it to catch up on her paperwork. She heard footsteps in the hall but ignored them. It was probably just one of her people wandering around. Almost everyone was in the lab tonight working on things. There didn't seem to be much call for their services outside these four walls. Nights like this were fairly rare. Even when they had quiet nights, typically there was something that kept everyone occupied like running backlogged evidence or some cold case to examine.

She had just started working on the first of the last three forms when someone slammed the morgue door. Quistis jumped in her seat then snarled without turning around.

"How many times have I told people not to…" her words trailed off as someone pressed the muzzle of a gun to the back of her head.

"Just stay calm and do what I tell you and you'll live through this." The voice was low, gruff, and male.

Quistis stayed frozen in her seat. She was proficient in self defense, but she couldn't think of anything that she could try at the moment that wouldn't get her a bullet in her brain. She tried to find her voice.

"What do you want?"

"You don't need to worry about that. You can't give it to me anyway." The voice was vaguely familiar as if she had heard before. "I'm going to pull the chair back, and then you're going to get up. Don't try anything funny, or you're dead."

Quistis' mind was occupied on several different levels. Part of her was panicking, part of her was trying to identify the man by his voice, and part of her was trying to plan a way out of this. She wasn't having that much success on the last part. How on earth had he gotten into the lab? They had safe guards in order to prevent hostage situations. You couldn't just walk in here with a gun unless you were a cop.

A chill trickled down her spine. Unless you were a cop. Things had just gotten much worse. Her captor was either a cop or impersonating one, and since Quistis thought she recognized his voice, she would put money on him being a cop. This was in no way a good situation. And Quistis wasn't sure she could see it ending happily.

She did as he had said, and Quistis soon found her hands handcuffed behind her back. While she was immensely curious about the identity of her captor, Quistis couldn't bring herself to turn her head to try and see him. He prodded her forward, and Quistis found herself walking towards the back of the morgue, past the autopsy tables. That made sense at least. The tables would provide some cover for him. Sooner or later, someone was going to discover what was going one, even if people weren't already looking for the man already. Quistis didn't know if taking her hostage was spur of the moment or planed. It would make a difference in his tactics. He wasn't acting like this was a panicked decision.

The man pushed to her knees, his gun still touching the back of her head. The little part of Quistis that was gibbering in fear was getting stronger. But as much as she wanted this whole situation to be discovered, Quistis didn't know if that really was a good idea. Given the way her captor had positioned them, she would guess he was expecting company. There was only one way out of the morgue, and this wasn't the end of the room it was in. That wasn't exactly promising. It signaled to Quistis that this man wasn't expecting to get out of here without something of a fight.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed. It seemed like quite awhile, but Quistis was aware that could just be because of her current situation. While she wanted something to happen, she didn't want something to happen that would end with a death. Either her own or anyone else's. The idea of having one of her friends on her table made Quistis feel more than a little sick. It was easier to face the idea on being on that table herself, and even that was something Quistis wanted to avoid.

Her captor did not speak, and Quistis found the silence incredibly uncomfortable. She was just waiting for something to go wrong. Sooner or later, there would be some sort of change in the situation. As if in response to her thoughts, there were loud footsteps in the hall. Quistis stiffened anticipating the knock on the door that would come any moment now. She had recognized those footsteps easily. It was Seifer and Squall; they were frequent enough visitors to her domain that she could recognize them easily.

The knocks came followed by Seifer's voice.

"Hey, Quisty? You in there?"

The gun pressed into her skull froze her voice in her throat. But her captor replied.

"If you want her to stay alive, Almasy, you'll go get someone with the authority to negotiate."

Seifer's voice was harsh and cold when he called back. "I want proof she's still alive, Martine."

Martine squeezed her shoulder. "Say hello, Dr. Trepe."

"I'm fine, Seifer." She was pleased to find that her voice didn't shake or otherwise betray her fear.

"All right, Lady Death. Hang in there. Matron will kill me if you get hurt."

"There's your proof, Almasy. You have fifteen minutes to get that negotiator."

Silence descended once again. Quistis was beginning to get uncomfortable in her kneeling position, but she wasn't about to complain. To distract herself, Quistis tried to remember everything she knew about Martine. The man was a transfer form the Galbadia police department, and Quistis had only interacted with him a handful of times. He wasn't normally assigned to graveyard shift. What she knew from others though was while Martine was a good cop, he wasn't easy to work with, and most people didn't really like him. There hadn't been any hint that he was violent or having problems though.

Whatever the cause though, this situation was not going to be easily resolved. If a police officer was willing to go this far to get what he wanted, it was unlikely that things would end without some violence. And Quistis knew that of everyone, she was in the worst position to come out of this alive and unhurt. Martine might end up dead as well, but there was nothing to stop him from taking her with him. That pissed her off. Quistis didn't like being turned into a victim in her own domain, and she didn't like being forced into the damsel in distress role. If the opportunity came up, she planned on doing something to get herself out of this mess.

Unfortunately, as long as Martine had the gun pressed against her head, Quistis couldn't do much of anything. She was hoping that when the negotiator got here, Martine would shift his position. That would at least give her a little room to maneuver. She wasn't helpless after all. Hand to hand fighting wasn't her strong suit, but she knew enough for self defense, and all she really needed to do was get out of the morgue. Once she was outside, other people could worry about dealing with Martine, and she would be safe.

The negotiator arrived before the fifteen minutes were up. It wasn't someone Quistis knew or had worked with. That was probably just as well. Someone who didn't know her personally would be able to look at things objectively. She had no doubt that emotions outside this room would be running high. There were too many people out there tonight who knew and loved her, and while that might be good under most circumstances, it could also cause problems, especially tonight. Though Quistis trusted Seifer to make necessary decisions, no matter what the outcome.

Unfortunately for Quistis, the negotiator's presence did not lead Martine to move. Though it did let her find out what Martine's demands were. Even as he was listing them for the negotiator, Quistis knew that the police department couldn't fulfill them. There was no way they would just let the man walk out of here, give him a car, and let him drive off. Quistis still didn't know what exactly had prompted this either. The negotiator hadn't mentioned it, and neither had Martine. As it was, things were rather stalemated. The negotiator wanted a show of good faith before the demands were considered, and so far, it didn't look like Martine was going to oblige him.

Of course, given that the first thing the negotiator had suggested as a show of good faith was letting Quistis go, Martine's lack of interest in that option wasn't surprising. The man knew very well that Quistis was his main advantage and bargaining chip in this. He wasn't about to let her go anytime soon, and he probably wouldn't let her go unless he was pretty certain he would get what he wanted.

None of that was good news for Quistis, and she knew it. There had to be something that she could do in order to change the odds in her favor. The negotiator switched to using the morgue's phone as the main avenue of communication. That had the side effect of Quistis not being able to hear the entire conversation. She wasn't that happy about that. It was hard to make plans when you only knew half of the story. Martine no longer had the gun pressed up against her flesh, but it was still trained on her, and Quistis was familiar with the effects of close rang bullet wounds.

The phone receiver was shoved into her hands. "They want proof of life again. Talk to them."

She raised the receiver to her ear. "Hello?"

"Lady Death," Seifer's voice was relieved. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. I didn't realize that you were negotiating this." Because that had disaster written all over it.

"I'm not," came the reply, "but this way I'll be able to tell Matron that I heard it from you that were fine. You know how she can get about her children. Like that time when Chicken Wuss got left in his high school locker after school?"

Quistis was careful not to let herself smile. Now she knew why it was Seifer she was talking to. Even if Martine overheard this conversation, he wouldn't understand the message. You had to one of the orphanage gang to. Seifer had given her two pieces of information that were vital. One, those outside were getting to the point where they were going to try action instead of words, and two, that if she could get herself into one of the cold chambers, they would know to look for her there.

"I remember."

The phone was pulled out of her hand. "You've had your proof. What about my demands?"

Martine finally seemed distracted enough to not have the gun directly trained on her. Quistis began carefully edging away from the man, one centimeter at a time. She didn't want him to notice her movement until she was a little farther away. The more space between them before he realized that she wasn't right as his side the better. She was to one of the autopsy tables when Martine realized she was gone. It was good thing too since it gave her something to duck behind.

The shot missed her, but the fact that it ricocheted made her uncomfortable. Quistis happened to know most of the ways a bullet could go into a person, and she really didn't want to think about that right now. That would probably cause her to panic and she couldn't afford that. The people outside clearly had heard the gunshot, and Quistis knew it wouldn't be long before a tactical solution would be taken. She did not want to be between Martine and the police when that happened.

Quistis moved carefully, heading towards her desk and the cold chambers. If worst came to worst, Quistis would hide beneath her desk when everything went down. A cold chamber would probably be safer though. They weren't entirely bullet proof probably, but they would provide more shelter for sure. She did not want to be out in the open when people came in guns blazing. She kept low to the ground. It was hard to see around the autopsy tables, and Quistis planned to use that to her advantage. She was well aware that her main advantages right now were the fact that she knew this room better than Martine and that she had gotten away from him.

She heard more than saw the morgue door burst open. Quistis immediately dropped flat to the ground. It was the safest thing to do at this point. The SWAT team (and that was probably who had gotten called in for this) would know she was here, but the best possible action on her part was keep herself from being a possible target. Someone would let her know when it was safe to get up. Still, it wasn't the pleasant sensation laying there on the floor without any idea of what was going on. She could hear of course, but that didn't tell her enough. She hated being helpless.

It seemed like forever before there was a hand on her shoulder and someone pulling her to her feet. Quistis found herself pulled directly into a tight hug. She managed to pull away enough to whose arms she was in. Seifer's worried eyes met her.

"You okay, Lady Death?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Good."

Quistis was content to rest in his arms for the moment. She knew that as soon as she left this room she was going to be mobbed by people who wanted to make sure she was okay and who wanted to know what had happened. However, right now Quistis just wanted a moment to enjoy the fact that she was safe and rest before she faced all that. Seifer tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Ready to leave?"

She nodded. "Yes."

With Seifer's arm around her shoulders, Quistis stepped out of the morgue.


	8. One Fine Day

**One Fine Day**

It was a beautiful day for a wedding. The sun was shining, and it was warm, but not too hot. There was a comfortable breeze in the air, and there had been no attacks by pigeons, ravens, or other birds. Quistis would say that the day was a success. It was especially nice after the rather disastrous rehearsal they had had yesterday. Today, however, everything had gone smoothly, and Quistis finally had a moment to sit back and enjoy the reception.

Her baby blue peek toe heels had been discarded under the table for the moment, and Quistis was enjoying being off her feet. The shoes Rinoa had chosen for the bridesmaids were gorgeous, but they weren't fun to spend the day in. Quistis would know; she had spent most of the day on her feet. That was one of the drawbacks to being the maid of honor. However, at the moment the reception was in full swing, and she didn't need to do anything.

It had been a lovely wedding. Everything had gone off without a hitch, and Rinoa and Squall were now officially married. It had been a long time coming. The betting pool on those two had started probably five minutes after they had first meet. The chemistry had been obvious to everyone. And it was nice to have a reason for a celebration. Typically, when a gathering had this many police officers and forensics staff around, it was funeral or a major crime scene. A wedding was much preferable.

Seifer dropped into the chair beside her. He was Squall's best man, and he was also here as her date. He set a Champaign flute in front of her.

"So, what's left to do before the happy couple ditches us?"

Quistis laughed. "We're just down to the bouquet and garter toss. Give me another fifteen minutes to rest my feet, and we'll get those started."

"You still owe me a dance you know."

She reached for her Champaign and took a sip. "Later when I don't have to worry about people noticing I'm not wearing shoes."

Seifer laughed. "No one is going to care, Quisty. No one sensible that is. I don't understand why women wear those torture devices."

Quistis shrugged. "It's called fashion. Of course, it's ridiculous. I avoid it when possible, but really, a bride's word is typically law when it comes to what the bridesmaids wear."

Seifer just wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm still collecting that dance."

She was more than happy to let him, after the bouquet and garter toss. Quistis wasn't about to give Rinoa any ideas. The young woman was rather fond of matchmaking, and Quistis preferred not to have interference in her love life such as it was. Selphie and Irvine were a much better choice for any matchmaking Rinoa wanted to do. Besides, Quistis preferred not to be the center of attention and if she caught the bouquet, she would be just that.

Once that Fuujin managed to catch the bouquet and Raijin got hit in the face of with the garter and the two of them had been made to dance together, the happy couple made their escape, and the party began to wind down. Quistis let out a sigh. Her only remaining duties would be making sure the band and the D.J. got packed up and out of the reception hall by the appointed time. Seifer snagged her wrist.

"Come dance with me."

She was still barefoot, but there weren't a lot of people dancing, and Quistis knew that she didn't have to worry about Seifer stepping on her feet. The music was slower and more mellow than it had been earlier, but that was just fine. Quistis swayed in Seifer's arms, content to rest her head on his shoulder and relax. It was a good way to end the day.


	9. It's All Fun and Games

**It's All Fun and Games**

Some nights Quistis honestly wished she could stay in bed. Halloween was one of them. No matter what Halloween always brought out weirdoes. It was like the full moon on steroids. And that fact that this year's Halloween fell on the night of the full moon simple spell utter chaos to Quistis. And unfortunately, there was no way she was getting out of going to work tonight. It just wasn't possible. They were already short handed due to a virus that was going around the lab, and Quistis quite honestly didn't trust anyone on the graveyard staff to be able to deal with the Halloween chaos appropriately without some help. She would never be able to forget the year when Zell thought it would be a good idea to show up to a crime scene dressed a zombie. There were still traumatized paramedics out there.

Quistis was not festive on this occasion. She wore the same thing to work that she usually did with the one exception of choosing clothes that she would be willing to get rid of if necessary. Halloween was not the time to wear an outfit she really liked as she had learned three years ago. She arrived to work early in order to deal with any emergencies or crises that that occurred earlier. Thankfully, there were none so far, but Quistis had found a wealth of candy corn set out in the lobby for visitors. She made a face; it was her least favorite candy.

It didn't take her long to make her way down to the morgue. Quistis took her time getting set up for the shift. Peace and quiet were rare things to be enjoyed tonight. By the time the graveyard shift actually started, she felt sufficiently prepared for most things. She also had pulled out her emergency supply of miniature chocolate bars and stashed them in several easy to access places. Quistis had a feeling she was going to need chocolate by the end of her shift.

The other graveyard shift staff members began to drift in to work in various degrees of festive dress. Quistis had never been able to get the policy banning costumes at work passed. Selphie was probably the most over the top as she as her dress mimicked a giant candy corn. And her earrings glowed and emitted spooky sounds. It was probably a good thing that Selphie didn't leave the lab much. Zell really wasn't too much better. Both his pants and shirt were black with a white skeleton design.

Quistis rolled her eyes but didn't comment on their attire. Instead, she got busy handing out assignments and gently reminding her crew that scaring civilians was not a part of their job. Not even on Halloween. The woman sent them off to work and grimly waited for a call that she knew was going to come some time tonight. Within in hour, Quistis was at a crime scene, expressing exasperated disbelief.

Some idiot had decided to hold a Clue party for Halloween and had invited about fifty of his closest friends to join him. And now they had a body (some one who had dressed as Mr. Body none the less) which had been clubbed, shot, hung, and stabbed. Multiple times. The body itself had been shoved into a closet and had not been discovered until a guest leaving early had been looking for her coat. The entire mansion was a crime scene, and While Quistis had called in Selphie, she wasn't here yet, and the rest of her staff had crime scenes of their own to deal with at the moment. And to make things worse, the two assholes of detectives and the guy hosting the party would not stop hitting on her. At this rate, there was going to be another homicide tonight.

"You know, you're not quite pulling off that sexy CSI costume, sweetheart. Why don't you ditch the long sleeves and--"

"Are you an idiot, Kern?" Seifer's voice cut him off. "Don't answer that. Go collect witness statements, and leave Lady Death alone."

"Thanks," Quistis smiled at him gratefully as she got back to work photographing the body.

"Not a problem, Quisty. Besides, it's less trouble this than if you had dismembered him."

"Would I do that?"

He smirked at her. "Of course. Not that I blame you, but I don't want to deal with the paperwork."

"So how crazy has it been tonight?"

Seifer ran a hand through his hair. "You know how the full moon brings out the crazies. Given that it's also Halloween, things had been about ten times worse than normal. Even Squall is showing signs of exasperation. Of course, he got stuck breaking up a fight between a guy who insisted he was a were-leopard and another guy who thought he was a Jedi Knight."

Quistis just shook her head. "Haven't you all had at least one Jedi Knight every Halloween for the past three years?"

"Oh, yes," Seifer smirked. "The worst was that time when we had half a dozen of them that had accidentally gotten high and blundered through that multiple victim crime scene thinking it was a haunted house. I'm sure you remember."

She did. Vividly. It had not been a fun scene to process and having to process a number of toy lightsabers had not made it any better. Thankfully, that case had been fairly cut and dried once they knew which evidence actually pertained to it. Quistis sighed.

"Cheer up, Lady Death. I'll take you to La Petite Provance once we get off shift. You can get a chocolate croissant for breakfast, and we can celebrate another Halloween survived."

The chocolate croissant sounded lovely. "I'll hold you to that, Seifer."

It was easier to get her work done without idiots hovering and interrupting her though. By the time that Quistis was done processing the crime scene (Selphie and Irvine had showed up to help when she was about two thirds done) and was able to take the body back to the morgue, it was well into the wee hours of the morning. Quistis spent the rest of her shift quite happily working on the autopsy of the murder victim. She really had no desire to be called out once again. And thankfully, the autopsy itself was proving to be rather simple. It was easy enough for her to tell which injuries had been inflicted before the man was dead and which ones happened after. She was just finishing up her report when the shift ended.

Quistis let out a content sigh as she printed out the report. With the paperwork finished, it was time to go find Seifer and see about that breakfast. She had no inclination to stick around the lab longer than necessary today, and if that meant dragging Seifer away from his desk, so be it. Luckily for her (and Seifer too probably), Quistis ran into him by the elevator. He had been on his way to collect her. Both of them were ready to call it a day, and they lost no time in getting away from work.

They were part of the early crowd at the bakery. There weren't many people around, and it didn't take long for them to snag a table and order breakfast. La Petite Provance was a favorite of Quistis' even if she didn't typically get to linger over her breakfast here. But she wasn't working tomorrow, and after Halloween, the woman felt that she was entitled to a treat. Seifer didn't try to make conversation, and the two of them quietly unwound from a long night of work as their food arrived. Quistis smiled at Seifer as she inhaled the smell of the cappuccino in her hands and he grinned back. This almost made the night worth it.


	10. Rest and Recovery

**Rest and Recovery**

With a smile, Quistis pulled her socks out of the dyer and put them on. There was nothing like warm socks. It was her evening off, and she was spending it doing laundry and other household chores that had gotten ignored over the course of the past week. It wasn't a bad way to spend a Monday night. Quistis had her regular housecleaning music on and was working her way down her list of chores. The kitchen had already been cleaned, and the laundry was now about half done.

The sound of her apartment door buzzer made Quistis jump. She wasn't expecting anyone. With a frown, she went to answer the door. The way Seifer was standing in front of the door and the takeout bag he carried told her everything she needed to know.

"Come on in. You can get the movie set up while I grab the laundry."

Seifer followed her silently. Quistis didn't press him. If he needed to tell her what had happened, he would when he was ready. He headed into the living room while Quistis went back to her laundry room. This was a tradition that had started soon after Seifer had started working at the police department. When there were cases that really got to him, the ones that kept you up at night with dreams, he would come over to her place, and they would watch movies and eat Chinese takeout. It had become Seifer's way to decompress, and Quistis honestly didn't mind the tradition.

When she returned to the living room with her laundry, _The Italian Job_ was starting, and Seifer had set out cups for the two of them and made tea. Quistis settled down on the couch beside him and reached for the box of cashew chicken. They didn't talk as they ate except for the odd comment on the movie. By the time the movie was half over, the food was long gone, including the fortune cookies, and Quistis was folding laundry. As was Seifer actually. He didn't do a half bad job with t-shirts and pants, though Quistis wasn't about to let him touch her underthings.

By the time _The Italian Job_ was over, all the laundry was sitting neatly folded in its basket. Quistis slipped into the kitchen to fix them both some ice cream while Seifer put in the next movie. She curled up beside him on the couch, her ice cream in her lap and her head resting on his shoulder. Seifer had one arm loosely wrapped around her, and Quistis would admit that she was quite comfortable sitting there snuggling with him.

It was towards the end of the second movie that Seifer finally spoke.

"The last case today was a woman your age. Long blond hair, but she had grey eyes, not blue. She was doctor, a pediatrician. And her brother beat her to death because she decided to move in with her boyfriend." Seifer's voice was almost emotionless as he spoke. "She was wearing that t-shirt that says 'Not That Kind of Doctor'. Just like the one you have. I thought she was you at first."

And that explained why he was here tonight. She couldn't blame him. Quistis knew that if had walked into a crime scene where someone who looked like Seifer was dead, she would want some assurance that he was all right. She snuggled a little further into his embrace. Seifer just sighed and held her. They stayed like that for the rest of the movie, not moving when it was over either except to turn off the TV.

When Quistis woke with the sun in her eyes the next morning, she found herself sprawled on the couch with Seifer laying behind her. She was using his chest as her pillow, and he had an arm wrapped around her waist cover the light blanket that covered them both. He was still sleeping peacefully. Quistis smiled.


	11. Lady Death and Her Knight

**Lady Death and Her Knight**

It was a quiet night in the morgue, and Quistis was grateful. The morning had seen the end of the trial for that awful triple homicide six months ago. Thankfully, Seifer and Squall had found the fourth little girl before she was killed. Catriona was doing fairly well, all things considered. She had been placed with a very good pair of foster parents, and she was at least physically recovered from her ordeal. Still, the trial had been brutal, and Quistis was enjoying having very little to do. She had the radio on, and the late night dj seemed to have the same taste in music as she did.

Quistis hummed along with the music as she worked over a body. Nothing special about this case, just a good old fashion heart attack. However, there was a dispute over the estate and accusations were flying every which way, so a full autopsy had been ordered. Not that she had found anything out of the ordinary. Some of the family members were going to be very disappointed. With the autopsy finished, Quistis disposed of her gloves, washed her hands, and got to work on the autopsy report

She was so caught up in her work that she didn't hear the door open, and it wasn't until Seifer caught her wrist, pulling her out of her chair and spinning her into his arms, that Quistis realized she was no longer alone. Seifer simply smirked down at her annoyed expression and pulled her into a dance position. In too good a mood for him to spoil, Quistis simply went along with it, and they waltzed around the morgue.

"What brought this on?" She asked.

"I am simply having a lovely night and felt like sharing."

"A lovely night?" Her eyebrow went up at that; Seifer did not normally describe nights on the job as 'lovely'.

Seifer laughed. "Let's see: all easy cases tonight, Puberty Boy got stuck with all the paperwork, and I got to see Chicken Wuss wade into a pond of maple syrup. And now I have the prettiest M.E. in town in my arms. What's not to like?"

Quistis had to bit her lip to keep from giggling when they waltzed passed the morgue door and heard Irvine comment to Selphie as they were passing by.

"There's just something weird about him romancing her in the morgue."

Ignoring them, Seifer steered her back towards the center of the morgue. "I have a question for you, my Lady Death."

"I'm not helping you start another prank war."

He laughed and sank down on one knee, still holding her hands in his own. "I was thinking about something a little more serious and permanent. Will my Lady Death give her knight her hand in marriage?"

She froze, and then Seifer found himself sprawled on one of her tables by the force of her assent. When Quistis finally let him up for air, he looked a little dazed.

"That was a yes," Quistis laughed, and then she kissed him again.


End file.
